1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus in which encoded data is written to a recording medium, a reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from a recording medium is decoded by the use of a digital signal processor (DSP), and a recording/reproducing apparatus having both of these functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a reproducing apparatus or recording/reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from a recording medium such as a magnetic tape is decoded by a DSP.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a conventional reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from a recording medium is decoded by a DSP.
As shown, the conventional reproducing apparatus includes a tape reading unit 101. The tape reading unit 101 has loaded therein a magnetic tape cassette 102 as a recording medium, which contains a magnetic tape having encoded data written thereon. The tape reading unit 101 reads the encoded data written on the magnetic tape in the magnetic tape cassette 102 and supplies the encoded data to a DSP 103.
The reproducing apparatus also includes a ROM (a read only memory) 105 having stored therein program data (decoding software) which is used by the DSP 103 to decode the encoded data. A controller 104 is provided to read the program data stored in the ROM 105 and supply the program data to the DSP 103 before the DSP 103 decodes the encoded data.
The DSP 103 decodes the encoded data based on the program data read from the ROM 105 and supplied from the controller 104. The data decoded by the DSP 103 is supplied to units provided downstream of a terminal 106.
Recently, a variety of encoding methods has been proposed, and conventional encoding methods have been upgraded repeatedly to have, for example, improved performance. Thus, decoding methods should be compatible with those various and upgraded encoding methods accordingly.
However, as in the above, the conventional reproducing apparatus in which encoded data read from the recording medium is decoded can support only a decoding method based on program data previously stored in the ROM. To support the above described various and upgraded encoding methods, the ROM has to be exchanged or its contents has to be renewed, which will require much time and expense since the user has to bring the reproducing apparatus to a service station or the like.